FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — According to a news release from the City of Fayetteville, officials are still working to investigate the suspected cyber incident from last Thursday that lead to the shutdown of the city’s online systems.
As of now, phone lines are back up and running at city buildings, except for the fire department.
"We started doing some remediation work on what may have occurred. We reached out to local providers to assist... We've engaged a national provider that [works with] computer forensics," said Information Technology Director Keith Macedo.
Macedo says what this means for the community is that all public meetings this week will be attended in person, there’s no live-streaming capability, and residents will also have to pay their utility bills in person.
"Our utility billing department has made a statement that late payments are suspended right now so nobody will be assessed any late payments and we are not doing any utility disconnects," Macedo recalled.
Sonia Harvey sits on the city council for ward one and says cyber incidents like these do impact taxpayers.
"When these types of things occur, we're looking at some time when we can't do everything at the normal pace that we're used to. Every day that we don't have it resolved, it is costing the taxpayers. We want to keep that to a minimum," Harvey explained.
Harvey says she was concerned initially, but is confident the city will resolve the issues.
"Especially after talking to Keith, our main IT person... I actually feel a lot better just because of the things they're prioritizing," said Harvey.
Macedo says the incident is still under investigation. At this time the city does not have a time frame for when everything will be restored.
"At this time, we're working with the consultants and local agencies to help investigate this situation, and then also re-mediate it to the best of our abilities. I've gone through this at a smaller scale, and it is not something you want to have to deal with but we're making sure we do it right."
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